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1605: The story behind Guy Fawkes
1605: The story behind Guy Fawkes
Every child has heard of Guy Fawkes and will most likely have watched a ‘guy’ being burnt on a bonfire and fireworks lighting up the night sky on Bonfire Night. This book answers the questions of history that lie behind the celebrations of 5 November.
Who was Guy Fawkes and how did he come to be below the chamber of the House of Lords in the first hour of 5 November 1605? What desperation drove those involved to plan a horrific massacre of the Protestant royal family and government?
Guy Fawkes was one of a group of English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years’ War against Protestant Dutch reformers and the later travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour and Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I in order to restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. Guy Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder which was stored underneath parliament.
He was caught and set to die at the Tower of London but broke his neck by falling from the scaffold before he could be hanged. This is the man whose effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire on November 5th.
Guy Fawkes was born on 13 April 1570 at 25 High Petergate in the shadow of York Minster. He was baptised at the church of St Michael le Belfrey nearby.
Destination: London Author/Guide: Alan Haynes Departure Time: 1605
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